Your Fairy Food Godmother is Calling!
Snag a £4K Bursary, an online mentoring programme with a panel of experts and yours truly.
Disclaimer: this post advertises a project I’m currently working on with Kettle. I have not been asked to share this on Substack but if you follow me on instagram you may have read about it.
I started working professionally in the food business in the noughties when I graduated from culinary school in Paris (I had given a stab at food styling 5 years earlier when I was at Art college but to no avail as I was only offered unpaid gigs). I took on everything from working in a vegetarian cafe, cheffing for private events, doing pops ups, consulting, food styling and this was just as a side hustle. I still had a job selling perfume in a department store, looking after kids, teaching English and working in a book shop to pay the actual bills.
This was all way before I had published my first cookbooks or made it on the small screen. It was also in the era of blogging and poking on facebook.
Fast forward to a bunch of international TV shows and cookbooks later I recently launched the Kettle Khoo Academy: an online mentoring programme plus £4k bursary for five UK female food entrepreneurs looking to set up or develop their gourmet food business. For the full terms and conditions and how to apply click here.
As part of the launch of the academy I sat down with a journalist from the Times and discussed my journey into food and the fact that in the UK only 18.4% of chefs are only women. We ate at The Pem which is run by Sally Abé who recently wrote, A woman’s place is in the kitchen a brutally honest account of working as a young chef in the industry (highly recommend to read it). You can read the full interview here The Food Programme recently had a great podcast episode about female chefs working in the UK fine dining industry.
My journey into the food business wasn’t exactly traditional, and my career has been a patchwork of creative culinary projects. But I’m absolutely thrilled to now have the opportunity to give back and share what I’ve learned along the way.
If you're a UK-based female food entrepreneur with big dreams of starting or growing your gourmet food business, I’d love to hear from you. This is an amazing chance to receive hands-on mentoring and a £4K bursary to help bring your vision to life.
Even if you're not applying, please share this with anyone who might benefit—let's continue to support and elevate more women in the food industry.
For more info on how to apply click here
I can’t wait to help make your foodie dreams come true!
This is fantastic, Rachel! I love that you’re doing this. I’ll pass on to some friends.
What a great programme to help young female chefs along the path! I hadn’t realised that this was yet another area where women are under-represented. Good luck with this and success to those applying!